A computer system that can be shut down through software and a manual switch is very popular at present. In addition to an operating system to execute related shutdown function, the computer system also has a manual power button. When the power button is pressed by a user, a manual trigger signal is generated. The manual trigger signal is sent to a motherboard of the computer system. To avoid the computer being shut down due to inadvertent press of the power button by the user, the motherboard is set to execute the shutdown operation until several seconds have elapsed after receiving the manual trigger signal. Either software shutdown or manual shutdown can be executed through a remote control device.
In the known techniques at present, to turn on the computer system remotely is accomplished through software or BIOS. For instance, R.O.C. patent No. I262672 entitled “Method for remotely turning on a computer through wake-on-LAN” at least discloses a motherboard supporting wake-on-LAN and a network card also supporting wake-on-LAN to execute remote booting in the background of this prior art. The network card and motherboard have respectively a connection port connected through a cable. Through the cable, the network card still can obtain a small amount of electric current from the power supply of the computer to monitor network frame even the computer is in a shutdown state. The network card supporting wake-on-LAN continuously monitors whether the local area network connected thereto has a packet with a special format (called Magic Packet) in the shutdown state. The Magic Packet is packaged in a frame format at the second layer in the network as shown in its FIG. 1a. In the event that the network card discovers a special segment that contains “FF” (16 carry digits) of six successive bytes and the following MAC address repeated sixteen times of the network card in anywhere of the Magic packet, the network card activates the computer to turn on through the cable linked to the motherboard. Based on the aforesaid conventional technique, I262672 proposes a method including steps of: 1. providing an operation interface to be linked to an interface device through a processing device linked to a first network, through an application program installed in the processing device compatible with the operation interface, and through a suitable communication protocol via the first network; 2. receiving a MAC address designated by the user that corresponds to a computer to support wake-on-LAN function in a second local area network; and 3. preparing a Magic packet according to wake-on-LAN protocol and the MAC address and broadcasting the Magic packet to the second local area network. Hence this prior art executes booting (or shutdown) operation through “the application program installed in the processing device compatible with the operation interface”.
A computer user can directly execute software shutdown function through the operating system. However, in the event that a serious software error takes place and results in crash, manual shutdown is needed. User has to directly press the power button of the computer continuously for a few seconds (depending on different designs of motherboards). The computer judges that the continuous press of the power button is intended by the user to shut down rather than an erroneous hit, and then executes a shutdown command. Moreover, after the computer system is shut down but the user still presses the power button continuously, the computer is triggered to start again after a few seconds lapsed.
Please refer to FIG. 1 for a computer system architecture now being commonly adopted. It includes a remote control device 1 electrically linked to a computer system 2 via a network. There is no restriction on network type and communication protocol. The computer system 2 includes a motherboard 21, a power supply 22, a processing system 23 and a network card 24. The processing system 23 is installed on the motherboard 21. The network card 24 receives signals transmitted from the remote control device 1 through the network, and sends the received signals to the motherboard 21. The motherboard 21 and power supply 22 are linked through a power line 220 and a signal line 221. The remote control device 1 sends a manual shutdown signal to command the computer system 2 to shut down due to the power button pressed by the user.
When the user directly operates the manual shutdown function by the side of the computer system 2, the user can directly judge whether the computer system 2 is shut down, and stop pressing the power button after shutdown. However, when the remote-controlled computer system 2 has to be shut down manually because of software malfunction, the user presses the power button but cannot directly judge whether the computer system 2 is shut down. The user can only roughly estimate the duration of pressing the power button to judge whether the computer system 2 has been shut down without definite confirmation. Pressing the power button too long could allow the shutdown computer system 2 to be restarted again. Hence the user encounters a dilemma of unable to directly confirm the status of the remote-controlled computer system 2.